The last few years my family has done the “summer family vacation” thing, not so much the road trip (though there has been a little bit of that thrown in) but primarily we go somewhere and stay there for a while. Before we had kids Laura and I would just… go wherever we wanted to, sometimes on a moment’s notice, stay in a hotel, one room, affordable, and easy.
As we got more kids, that option wasn’t necessarily available to us. When we visited Mount St. Helens we only stayed one night and the following year just a couple of nights in a hotel visiting the Olympic Peninsula. But these were increasingly impractical.
Our next family vacation (which was less than a week, mind you) was to Seaview/Long Beach on the southwest corner of the state. This would set the standard for our following vacations as we rented a house.
No, really, getting a vacation rental was a complete game-changer.
Over the last few years whenever we’ve gone on vacation one of the criteria is location of a rental house. Whether it is for a week or a month, at this point if we can’t stay in a house we aren’t going.
One of the biggest advantages of getting a house, especially if you have kids (and it doesn’t matter if you have one or travel with six like we do) is the kitchen. Getting to wake up and make whatever breakfast you want, be it a simple bowl of cereal or as elaborate as an omelette is a massive cost-saver. Same goes for dinner. Especially dinner. Getting a centrally located house where you can go do an activity or two, come home, cook dinner and then go out to do more things, well, those savings add up exponentially.
If you don’t have kids the kitchen is still a worthy expense-saver. If you do have kids, however, especially if you have more than a couple, making sure they each have a bed can be key, especially with younger ones and keeping a consistent bedtime. Not to mention the noise levels, no matter the quality of the hotel.
Yes, some of the vacation rental houses are better than others, but you can always spend some time researching them before making a selection. One of the biggest criteria we have when selecting a vacation rental is if there are pictures of each bedroom in the listing. Seriously. Showing off pictures of the surrounding area and things to do is fine, but I sort of have an idea of those since I’m planning a vacation there. What I want to see is where everybody will be sleeping.
Some of the vacation rentals we have had have been phenomenal. Our trip to Massachusetts a few years ago went so much better with each kid having their own bedroom. Then there was the summer of 2015 when we took two different mini-vacations. The house we stayed in Oregon versus the house in Winthrop, well, that was the summer we learned we needed to really spend some time figuring out where we would stay before we make the reservation.
There are a couple of places I wouldn’t mind owning a vacation home. The Oregon Coast is one. We’ve gone there twice in the last few years and certainly want to go again. New England is another, perhaps just north of Boston, but not quite Salem (where we stayed). The other place is Port Angeles. It’s a perfect as a jumping off point for the Olympic Peninsula and close enough to Seattle for a quick trip away for a long weekend.
These are vacation locations I am thinking of for the summer, along with extended “shoulder” seasons. For the winter I don’t really have an idea of where I would vacation. Vacasa.com has some ideas about that. They just published a report on the top 10 winter destinations for having a vacation home.
I found the report interesting, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, I was surprised at a couple of the destinations. Vermont as number 1? Sure. Park City, Utah didn’t make number 2? I wasn’t surprised it is included, but I did expect it to be higher than number 4. That Estes Park was passed over for Pagosa Springs, Colorado is also a bit surprising. That Montana didn’t make the list but Big Bear Lake, California did is also surprising.
Were I to purchase a vacation home specifically for the winter season, I would probably first look at West Yellowstone, Idaho because Yellowstone National Park in the winter is fantastic. That, however, is a personal preference, and I think any of the locations in that report would be good.
Closer to my neck of the woods, the number three destination for owning a winter rental home, Leavenworth, Washington is a solid choice. Not only is it a winter destination, it is a good place to get away pretty much any time of the year. And at a reported $380K median home price (which is a little surprising) it would be a somewhat affordable investment.
Reading Vacasa’s report has put me in a vacationing mood and looking at where we will go as a family next. Vacasa has a lot of rentals all over, not just at the “top winter destinations” and they operate year-round.
So, where do you want to go?